A Home Fire Safe : Protect your documents.

Home Fire Safe : Protect Your Essential Documents.

So why does an ordinary Joe need a home fire safe?

Why
have a safe at all, safes are for those that have plenty of valuable
jewelry and such stuff right?

Well, you too likely have items of value,
items that you would rather not loose to a burglar or a fire.

After all, you have spent your time working your butt off and along the
way have acquired a few things, some of which may be of value.

Of course it is not only things that would be worth a lot of money to
anybody that you don’t want to lose.

You undoubtedly have items that
are of high sentimental value, they would be irreplaceable if you lost
them in a fire.

A wristwatch that belonged to a long passed away loved one.

The watch is
just one of mass produced millions, but the memories it holds makes it
absolutely unique and priceless to you.

Treasured letters, postcards, notes, photographs, a picture by a five
year old child, drawn with great concentration and love, just for you.
How can a monetary value be placed on such things?

Then there are treasures that do have a material value, a family
heirloom perhaps, or a collection that has been painstakingly built up
over time, but their real worth to you is far more than any amount that
you would be able to insure them for.

Alongside these are all the essential documents that need protecting, wills, passports, stocks, deeds, insurance policies etc.

You
would not want to lose any of these important things to a burglar,
neither would you want to lose them to the ravages of fire. This is why
you may want to consider a home fire safe.

A Safe That Is Both Burglar And Fire Resistant.

house on fire

With a home fire safe you can give your essential items the best possible protection.

So would a home fire safe protect my things from being stolen and from being wiped out by fire?

Maybe. Some would only give a degree of protection from fire, and hardly
any protection at all from burglary. Others can give a good degree of
protection from both.

To a point, it is the ability of a safe to stop its own internal
temperature rising too much during a fire that protects the contents.

Of
course, the outside must not burn and the flames must not reach the
inside, but if it gets too hot internally then your valuables are highly
likely to be damaged.

To give protection from safe-crackers, the safe must be tough on the
outside as well as having a difficult to defeat locking system. It must
be able to withstand burglars working on it with all kinds of tools, at
least for a reasonable time.

A home safe needs to have all the above attributes to be both burglar and fire resistant.

Choosing Your Home Fire Safe.

Naturally the size of the home fire safe that you choose will depend on
the size, shape and quantity of the items that you need to protect.
Fortunately there is quite a variety of sizes available.

Keep in mind that the interior dimensions will be quite a bit smaller
than the exterior dimensions, with some fire safes considerably so. It
may seem an elementary point, but it is easy to forget that when making a
choice.

Consider which type of locking system will suit you best. Electronic,
digital, key, combination or a system that incorporates a mix of
types.

Is interior shelving important to you? If it is, does it need to be adjustable?

If
you are choosing a small home fire safe that is also burglar resistant,
is it able to be anchored into concrete or wood? Are the anchor bolts
supplied?

Locating Your Home Fire Safe.

You will no doubt want to give thought to where you are going to locate
your fire resistant safe. It does need to be in a spot where it can be
firmly anchored, either to a wall or to the floor.

Most of us would simply not have the need to get to our valuables
several times a day, but if you do need to examine them fairly
frequently, ease of access is another consideration.

As well
designed as many safes are, for most of us they are not items of
furniture we would proudly display in our lounge.

Sometimes though,
restrictions of space means that we have to site the safe where perhaps
we would rather not. In these circumstances, with a little ingenuity,
the vault can be disguised to appear to be something else.

Hiding your safe is a good idea for another reason, it keeps it a secret
from casual visitors. You never know who is going to tell who that you
have a safe. Before long the news has got to the ears of a burglar.

A Fire Resistant Safe To Protect Your Documents.

Paper will start to burn, without flames touching it, at around 451
degrees Fahrenheit. This does depend somewhat on the type of paper and a
few other factors. Remember though that paper will start to char at
temperatures quite a bit lower than that.

A typical house fire can reach temperatures of up to 1500 degrees. A
good home fire safe should be constructed so as to keep its internal temperature below 350 degrees.

A Class 350 Underwriters Laboratory rated fire resistant safe keeps
the internal temperature below 350 degrees during a blaze.

Additionally
UL give a rating as to how long the internal temperature will stay under
350, for example a Class 350 with a one hour rating etc.

As media items, film, photographs, recording tape, CD’s, DVD’s and the
like, will suffer destruction at lower temperatures than paper, they
need to be in a safe that can keep the inside at a lower temperature. UL
Class 150 and Class 125 rated safes will protect media items and again,
also have an hour rating.

A safe with a one hour rating may not seem like it will protect your
documents for very long.

However, although the average house fire will
reach high temperatures, it does not do so for very long in one spot.

As the blaze progresses through the building, the burnt area will
begin to cool.